At that point the officer attempted to place Xiaojie in handcuffs outside the store, but she resisted and the two ended up on the ground. Hansen said police were able to place one of Xiaojie's hands in cuffs but she was twisting on the ground, holding her other arm underneath her.
A second officer arrived to assist and after failing to get Xiaojie's other arm into the cuffs, she was Tasered, Hansen said.

If she'd been kicking and punching, ok, but "twisting on the ground holding her other arm underneath her" really doesn't seem taser-worthy.

Disclaimer: I want to say that what I am describing *may* not actually have happened. This is my own interpretation of what happened *if* the lady in the video was a member of my family.
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I'm so deeply embarrassed to admit this about my own family. However, it is important for other people to know that this is likely a manipulation game in the extreme.

I'm the first generation born in the US. My mom (and many of my family members) pretends not to understand what people are saying as a manipulation tactic to get what she wants. She especially takes advantage of the fact that if someone says that she has been there previously, she can (and has done many many times) claim cultural insensitivity by accusing the shopkeeper that she thinks everyone of that national origin looks the same.

Mom (who also grew up in a communist country) knows VERY well that you should NOT mess with the police or resist arrest.... except that over here it gets you public sympathy.

I feel so bad for the daughter who has been put into the role of interpreter, real or not.

I used to work at a community center in Chinatown, and I often had to correct people who were breaking the facility's rules. Many of the facility's rules were safety-oriented, and so people who broke the rules were endangering their or their child's life in doing so. These were serious rules set with injury prevention in mind.

Frequently, I would go tell people to stop doing something, and of course, they'd pretend to not speak English and continue to do not follow my orders. Then, I'd see them speaking English to someone else, clearly!

It was really frustrating, especially since I would have been the one responsible for not "enforcing the rules" when they were injured. I did not speak Chinese myself, and was at a complete loss.

Eventually, smartphones saturated the market, and one of my coworkers started using online translators, which sort of helped.

I am Chinese. I live in America. That woman deserved it. Its very common in China that men and women brawl with store staff over store rules or prices. They have no respect for rules. I grew up with those scenes. That woman thought she can do the same here. If you believe that being tased would teach her a lesson, think again. All it gave her was a story she can tell over and over to family and friends until the day she dies. This won't phase her. If and when that Apple store ever goes out of business, I can guarantee you she will BRAG that SHE was the one who brought them down. My own mother certainly would... and she's WAY WORSE than this lady.

That said, from my life experiences, I wouldn't have a hard time believing the woman was behaving obnoxious and aggressive. The I don't speak or understand English is in my experience generally BS. If it's true, she needs to have someone with her to interpret. You can't expect to have most people in the U.S. [and English speaking country] to understand Cantonese, Vietnamese, Russian, Creole, etc., etc., We as a society bend over backwards and are sensitive to new immigrants and others who are not proficient in English, more so than most of the countries in the world and their defacto native language. How does anyone think a woman in China who did a similar thing except she couldn't speak or understand Chinese or the local dialect would be treated?

As a general response to all of the posts on this topic, I think it's helpful to separate:
- Issue 1: Woman's actions leading up to her arrest.
- Issue 2: Police officers' and woman's behavior during arrest.
My only point about Issue 2 is that he police had her overpowered. They could have completed the arrest without using the Taser. The Taser may have helped them complete the arrest, if she was struggling, but it wasn't *required*.
In many arrests, police officer/officers use a Taser and other non-lethal force to gain control of an individual. Unfortunately, being human, they sometimes give in to anger/adrenaline/fight-or-flight behavior and misapply these tools to *punish* the individual. This is particularly true when the individual has been subdued after a difficult/dangerous chase or struggle.

Not to make light of the experiences everyone relates above, but I wish the world were so simple that one nationality/color/gender etc etc had the monopoly on assholes. Then we would know that everyone not of Group X is okay.

My very sweet, extremely charming, absolutely wonderful mother had a southern accent so thick you could spread it on toast. I watched her talk her way out of a ticket for driving the wrong way down a one way street in NYC (knowingly and after a few glasses of wine) by playing the Dumb Belle. She talked her way to the front of lines ("Oh, I'm so sorry! It starts back theah?"). She talked her way into a restaurant five minutes after their closing time, with 5 kids. She was shameless and a smart cookie. And she was born in the US. We breed'em here as well.

Wait, she drove drunk the wrong way down the street in NYC, could have injured or killed someone, and you think it amusing she talked herself out of a ticket? That's pathetic. I'm not impressed with your drunk driving mom's so called Southern charm or accent. I would NEVER let one of my parents, friends or co-workers get behind the wheel after a few glasses of wine. Smarten up, please!

No actual anonymous users were harmed in the making of this in-joke, which involves somebody who used to post under her own name here and then blew up and asked that I delete her account but who has a somewhat distinctive writing style.